Fleeing the Nazis After Hitler's Rise, Einstein Rushes to Save Two of his Closest Scientific Colleagues (He fears a scheme to save his future Princeton colleague by secretly sending him to a conference in Spain will end poorly)

Germany as an island of intellectuals is no longer possible, he writes, blaming the fall of his country and exile of his colleagues on poor education, a vestige of Bismarck?"I am almost collapsing under all my responsibilities." ?A glimpse into the tragic end to the scientific flowering of pre-Nazi Germany, along with Einstein's explanation for why it all happened?A rare letter from a brief but consequential period in Einstein's life: after he left Germany but before he arrived in AmericaEinstein had long been a revered scientist and member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and was employed by Berlin University. At the beginning of March 1932 he returned to Germany from a visit to the United States where he had discussed heading the soon-to-open Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He determined to accept, and to spend half the year in Berlin and half the year in Princeton. But that year the Nazis were on the rise. It was becoming increasingly obvious to Einstein that his life was in danger. A Nazi organization published a magazine with Einstein?s picture and the caption ?Not Yet Hanged? on the cover. There was even a price on his head.In December 1932 Einstein again left Germany to be a visiting professor at CalTech in Pasadena, California. When Hitler was appointed German chancellor on January 30, 1933, the physicist had just arrived in New York on his way to California, to lecture on his theory of relativity. Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany was now open, swift and often violent. Prominent Jews were denounced by Nazi officials, attacked in the media, and subjected to violence and arrest. As a vocal opponent of Nazism and a staunch advocate of pacifism, Einstein was a particularly attractive target. Fortunately, at the time Hitler came to power, Einstein was already in the United States. Nonetheless, the Nazis publicly agitated against Einstein as a symbol of ?Jewish degeneracy? and accused him of spreading ?atrocity propaganda.? In February and March 1933, the Gestapo repeatedly raided his family?s apartment in Berlin.Despite his own March 15, 1933, declaration of self-imposed exile from Nazi Germany, as well as warnings from friends that it was too dangerous to return, Einstein and his wife decided to travel back to Germany, intending to visit their summer cottage. At the end of March, they arrived in Antwerp on the SS Belgenland, owned by the shipping company Red Star Line. There they learned that Nazis had ransacked their cottage in Caputh, at which point they decided that re-entering Germany was unwise.In April 1933, Einstein discovered that the new German government had passed laws barring Jews from holding any official positions, including teaching at universities. Thousands of Jewish scientists were suddenly forced to give up their university positions and their names were removed from the rolls of institutions where they were employed. Einstein was now without a permanent home, unsure where he would live and work, and equally worried about the fate of countless other scientists still in Germany. He rented a house in De Haan, Belgium, where he lived for a few months. In late July 1933, he went to England for about six weeks, where he was introduced to Winston Churchill. Einstein asked Churchill to help bring Jewish scientists out of Germany. British historian Martin Gilbert notes that Churchill responded immediately, and sent his friend, physicist Frederick Lindemann, to Germany to seek out Jewish scientists and place them in British universities. In October 1933, Einstein returned to the US and took up his position at the Institute for Advanced Study. He had already revoked his German citizenship in Brussels, and handed in his notice at Berlin University. He would never return to Germany.Michele Angelo Besso was a Swiss/Italian engineer. A Sephardic Jew by birth, he was a close friend of Einstein during his years at the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich and then at the patent office in.…